


Always check the temporal/spacial locator before exiting

by asparagusmama



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 'a woman's place', 'moral insanity', 1980 Iran, Historical Accuracy, Oppression, Patriarchy, Sexism, chadors, ducking stools, new problems with travelling throughout Earth's history, thirteenth century England, victorian london
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-03-28 10:09:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13901796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asparagusmama/pseuds/asparagusmama
Summary: It's always a good idea to check when and where you are, particularly with the Doctor's new body, particularly on Earth (and Draconia, where being a noble might no longer be recognised...)





	1. Chapter 1

The revolutionary guard opened the cell door, and with a leer at the Doctor and Yasmin, spat on the floor and threw two folded pieces of black cloth on the floor.

“Tell your women to put them on,” he snapped at Graham before slamming the door shut.

“You have to let us out of here!” the Doctor yelled at his retreating back through the small window bars. She turned to watch Yasmin unfold one for the pieces of cloth and casually, but with dignity, as if it were of no consequence, wrap the sheet over her head and around her, low over her forehead, so only her face and hands were showing. The Doctor looked at the second piece of cloth with bewilderment.

“Here,” Yasmin said, scooping up the black piece of material and throwing over the Doctor, fussing over it, until it hung just right.

“Thank you,” the Doctor said, slightly subdued, taking a step forward, getting her foot caught, stumbling and the cloth falling to the floor.

*

Five minutes later, the Doctor made a cry of frustration as she fell for the fifth time.

“Lift it up in front of you as you step, taking care to show nothing but your feet. And bring it forward over your face. Don't show your hair. That's it.”

“We really should have checked when and where we were,” Graham said.

“Somewhere out there in the Zagros Mountains is crashed alien craft! Plus we have no idea what they are and if they are friendly! We're answering a distress call! Why won't they listen!” the Doctor said in anger as she paced with anxiety, and fell over again, the cheap rayon chador once again falling off. “Aaagh! What is this?”

Yasmin laughed with disbelief. “Honestly Doctor, how can you have been visiting Earth for over two thousand years and not know the differences of times and places?” she asked, exasperated, as she once again tried to settle the chador on the Doctor's restless body.

Ryan, who had been leaning on the far wall, snorted. “Two thousand years as a white man, init?”


	2. Chapter 2

Ryan looked up from the group of villagers surrounding him and Yasmin to see Graham tearing through the woods, looking desperate. They had been entertaining the good natured, entirely unracist but insatiably curious, thirteenth century peasants on a series of lies about life as a Saracen diplomat and 'wife' while the Doctor investigated the strange alien radioactive slime out in the fields that she suspected had been making some of the villagers grow sick.

“Excuse me, it's my manservant,” he bullshitted. “What is it Graham?”

“The Doctor,” Graham puffed, “she wouldn't stop talking. Just wouldn't take a hint and let me translate. They've put this muzzle on her head and are about to drown her!”

Over-hearing, the villagers left the foreign nobles to go and watch the ducking of the witch. Perhaps the sickness would end.


	3. Chapter 3

“I am not a whore!” Graham heard the Doctor roar as he turned the corner of the street. “And I am not mad!”

He ran until he felt his lungs would burst, but could only collapse with exhaustion as she was bundled into a black maria and disappeared through the foggy streets of London. They had become separated on the way back to the TARDIS. His eyes were sore from the effort of not blinking for what felt like hours, and also felt, a little bit, like a murderer, the way he, Ryan, and Yasmin had smashed up the three Weeping Angels that they hadn't managed to quantum lock in a circle, forever gazing into each others eyes. From what the Doctor had told them, it was a good job to have rid the streets of Soho of five Weeping Angels.

Still the guilt. And now the worry. It took him three hours to find Ryan and Yasmin, and it wasn't until the following morning they found where the Doctor was. He had to pretend to be her father, which was hilarious, or would be, once they had got her out, and could see the funny side. Still he couldn't see her. She'd been sectioned and put in an institution 'for her own safety'. 'Moral insanity' and 'delusions' were the diagnosis. All because she wore trousers, didn't demur and simper but looked back at the men in the eye and argued with them, and claimed to be a 'doctor'. She scared them.

“She is the Doctor!” he wanted to argue. “And the most moral person you could meet. Saved your life a thousand times over, you stupid man!”

Two days it took to make a plan and get her out, by which time she had told many women they weren't crazy, and they had to get all of them out! Amazing how fleeing domestic violence, or having sex out of wedlock, or committing adultery, or wanting to study maths or science, or be able to vote, was considered insanity in middle and upper class women. Yasmin couldn't stop being angry for a week.

**Author's Note:**

> After a conversation with babyklingon after box setting civilisations (Mary Beard is awesome!) we were both inspired to wonder about historically accurate historicals and the new problems the Doctor might encounter...?


End file.
